- Born
- DiedJanuary 22, 2003 · Newport Beach, California, USA (complications from Alzheimer's disease and pneumonia)
- Birth nameWilliam Henry Mauldin
- Bill Mauldin was born in Mountain Park, New Mexico, in 1921, and started drawing young. He took a few courses at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and, in 1940 entered the Army and was assigned as an illustrator for the military's newspaper, The Stars & Stripes. He created two characters for which he will always be remembered: a pair of plain, tired but determined infantrymen named Willie and Joe. The two clicked with the average GI almost immediately, one of the reasons being that the brass hated them. Gen. George S. Patton despised them and tried to have the panel removed (and Mauldin court-martialed), but they became so incredibly popular among GIs that Time magazine actually featured them on its cover, and eventually Patton relented.
After the war Mauldin did a panel for United Features Syndicate featuring Willie's and Joe's trials at home, dealing with social issues and attacking the Red Scare hysteria and the paranoia of the McCarthy era. In 1949 Mauldin was hired by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, wrote books and even appeared in two motion pictures: Teresa (1951) and The Red Badge of Courage (1951) (starring another World War II icon, Audie Murphy. In 1962 Mauldin was hired by the Chicago Sun-Times, where he stayed until he retired in 1991. Mauldin's work was for ordinary people who read the papers, trying to show reality spiced with humor. He was a supporter of civil rights and the environment, and took a strong stand against the war in Vietnam. When he won his first Pulitzer prize, Mauldin was the youngest man (at age 24) to ever win it. He won the Pulitzer again, and was honored with degrees from Connecticut Wesleyan University, Washington University (St. Louis), and Albion College.
Mauldin married Norma Jean Humphries in 1942. They had two sons, Bruce Patrick and Timothy. After a divorce in 1946, Mauldin married Natalie Sarah Evans in 1947. They had four sons, Andrew, David, John and Nathaniel. Mauldin died in Newport Beach, California in 2003.- IMDb Mini Biography By: A. Nonymous
- SpousesNatalie Sarah Evans(June 27, 1947 - January 21, 2003) (his death, 4 children)Norma Jean Humphries(February 28, 1942 - May 22, 1946) (divorced, 2 children)
- A cartoonist for the US Army newspaper "Stars & Stripes" in Europe during World War II, he created the beloved characters of Willie and Joe, two dirty, tired, war-weary combat infantrymen who constantly put up with bad food, worse weather, maltreatment by officious army brass and a myriad of other obstacles faced by the ordinary "GI Joe" and nevertheless slogged on. "Willie and Joe" was a huge hit with US and Allied troops fighting in Europe, who could strongly identify with the trials and tribulations faced by the two.
- Pictured on a 44¢ USA commemorative postage stamp issued 31 March 2010. His cartoon characters Willie and Joe are also shown.
- Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 358-360. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007.
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